Through The Darkened Mirror
by ColdGoldLazarus
Summary: A girl escaping a cruel family, a joker with a dark secret, an unrepentant pickpocket, a kickboxing celebrity sick of the limelight, a stubborn outlaw fleeing his heritage, Twins with bad attitudes and good hearts, and a mute who runs too sweet and too sour. All eight have but two things in common: They're attending Beacon, and they're being hunted by a Rose.
1. Prologue: Cinders And Ashes

**So, this happened. I think I'll let the story explain itself for the most part, but there are two things to note before we begin.**

**First, to those who have read The Curse And The Blessing, I'm still working on it; there will be six chapters total and an epilogue, and I am working on Chapter 2 right now.**

**Second, due to the mysterious nature of the Canon Cinder, I'm basically operating on pure guesswork and more than a bit of my own brand of nonsense in defining this one; some of the inspiration I'm drawing from here should be obvious. Basically, I don't expect this to be remotely accurate to canon at all, and I'm not really trying to be. Just so you know.**

**EDIT: This ended up getting a Code 1 for some reason, so I changed the rating to M so it would be published, but you can expect generally T-rated violence at the worst.**

**Anyway, with that over with, let's get on with the story! (And don't forget to review if you liked what you saw or had suggestions or criticism!)**

* * *

_Cinnamon wafts from the ashes_  
_something sweet was burning down;_  
_Rotten outside pure within, a_  
_lawless prince rejects his crown._

_Earthy dampness hides the hunted;_  
_Metal stench of rusted iron._  
_Acrid smoke from wilting flowers;_  
_Minted whiteness seems so fair;_  
_Musty red walls feel familiar;_  
_Neon ozone fills the air..._

* * *

The lone figure lay in the center of the ragged carpet, laying back lethargically as she felt the stifling heat seep down her throat, sweat staining her ragged clothes to no effect. Facing her was a massive metal monstrosity of a furnace, its cylindrical black body radiating visible heat, its tiny maw open to spill an angry orange light over the surroundings. The fire within burnt and cracked with an almost accusing tone, a tone oddly similar to the voices of those who lived just upstairs. Along the walls to the left and right were stacks of books, the wax of their bindings slightly melted from many a night being read near the furnace, and each one worn from use. Sooty handprints covered their leather dust jackets like a child's art project, but their owner had been careful to treat the precious pages within more respectfully. A staircase, the steps littered with used bowls and silverware, led up along the wall opposite the furnace; a thick door with no less than three deadbolts at the top, while a tiny cot filled the equally tiny space below. In the corner behind the furnace was a tall stack of firewood, added to on an irregular basis through a diagonal slot near the ceiling – it was too small for the room's occupant to fit through, unfortunately. Aside from those, the room was bare, the few possessions all coverered in a fine layer of soot and lit only by the same burning orange glow.

The room was bare, and grimy, and small, yet it was her home, as it had been for the past... five years, she thought. Perhaps it was six? The room was windowless and she had no clock; the only way she could judge time was when she was brought food, something that her captors sometimes forgot to do. She knew, remembered enough from her childhood, that hers was a bad lot, and there was a better world waiting for her somewhere outside. Yet, part of her, a part she cursed and despised with every cord of her being, that was afraid to escape, not for fear of failure and punishment, but from the thought of facing an unfamiliar world. It was that part of her alone that had prevented so many opportunities from being taken, and why she now lay here doing nothing even as the first of the deadbolts unlocked with a sharp click.

Clack. Click.

The stairs creaked as her visitor gingerly made her way down, carefully stepping around the discarded dishes. She didn't bother going too far, stopping on the third step and leaning over to see into the basement. "Can't you make it go any hotter? My room is, like, freezing." The overdressed girl frowned at her so-called sister without any sympathy, wincing as some ash rubbed off onto her puke-brown nightrobe. When the figure on the mat made no move to respond, she raised her voice. "Cinder! Don't make me get Mom up to come down here!"

Cinder snorted slightly, taking some comfort in the knowledge that Tremaine would beat her own daughter just as badly as she would Cinder for losing her some beauty sleep, but after a moment of consideration, sluggishly got to her feet and began heading toward the fire poker. "That's better," was all her sister offered on the way out. Cinder barely even noticed as she mechanically went about her task; the lack of gratitude had ceased to bother her a long time ago. Such was simply her lot in life.

Realizing her own thoughts, a sudden burst of anger overtook her, and she jabbed deep into the flames with her poker, not noticing that her fingers had slipped until it was too late. Free of her hand, the instrument flew like a javelin into the heart of the furnace, the pointed end embedding itself in the interior wall opposite, while the wooden handle rested among the coals. Cinder could only stare in horror, her hands suddenly sweaty all over again as she was mesmerized by the pulsing, flickering orange cracks in the black-caked bottom, the dancing flames roaming across a tiny landscape and drawing curiously toward the new arrival.

Tremaine would kill her if she had to spend a cent of her precious fortune on a new poker, but the heat, bad enough on a regular day, seemed to shoot up several degrees just from thinking about the other option. But still, she had no choice – Cinder had to try to reach in and retrieve the poker.

Carefully reaching one hand forward, fruitlessly trying to steady her wavering limb so as not to brush the edges of the small door, she drew closer to the wrathful metal hulk. She was up to her wrist now – already, it felt like the blood in her fingers was boiling, and a muscle in her pinkie seized up. Ignoring the pain, too tense now to allow for a single mistake, she reached further inward, taking a small step toward the furnace and nearly tripping on the rug. She was up to her elbow, and slowly, carefully began twisting her arm over to reach downwards. She had run out of sweat now, the droplets on her skin having long since evaporated in the infernal heat. A flame licked upward just below her hand, but she resisted the urge to jump away, knowing she'd only hit the burning metal ceiling if she did so. Her skin was beginning to turn pinker than usual, and the burning sensation grew stronger… Her shoulder was now just short of pushing up against the opening, and her fingers still couldn't even so much as brush the poker's handle.

Her vision began to waver, and she realized she was crying. Blinking away the tears so they wouldn't cause a misjudgement, she stared helplessly into the fire as she considered her options, barely aware of her arm still slowly roasting in there. With a gulp, she realized she had no choice, and gritted her teeth.

Throwing herself forward, she flailed wildly for the handle, finally succeeding in grabbing it. She withdrew, banging her knuckles roughly on the way out, and all but threw the poker across the room and away from the furnace, not caring where it landed as she dropped to her knees.

Clutching her hand tightly, the burning sensation finally overtook her. Her whole side had been pressed up against the furnace's shell for several seconds too long, flames rocketing up and down within her skin even through her dress, while her shoulder and hand were actually beginning to blister and crack, sending sharp spikes of pain into her mind with every slight movement – the pain was worse if she held still. She bit her hand mindlessly, feeling the teeth actually sink into her skin, yet it failed to distract from the horrific burning heat that overtook her entire body. This had to be the end, it just had to, her animal mind screamed within itself, yet all that came out was a muffled groan and whimper. She bit harder, but it didn't help, and tears once more sprung to her eyes. The world was being swallowed in blackness, the blinding light from the furnace holding out for a moment longer before the merciful, cool, black rushed in to obscure that as well.

* * *

When she came to, Cinder did so all at once, still lying on the rug. Yet - something was different. Blinking quietly, (tears still clung to her lashes; had she only been out for a second?) the tattered girl pushed herself up to her knees, mind struggling to determine what was wrong.

And then it hit her – there _was_ nothing wrong. Looking down, she saw that her hand and shoulder were whole and unblemished, though soot had been rubbed away in the right spots. Not only that, but the burning sensation was gone entirely. In fact, she even felt a little bit chilly! She glanced over to see that the furnace was indeed still burning, casting the same malevolent orange glow as always, but the stifling heat she had never quite grown accustomed to in five years was entirely absent.

Distractedly playing with her fingers, Cinder's mind leapt forward. What had happened? Where were her injuries? Why was the heat gone? Several theories, each more insane and desperate than the last, leapt out at her, but she dismissed them instantly. There was no logical explanation, as far as she knew.

Standing with a sigh, the girl leaned her head against a bookshelf, too emotionally drained to give the issue any real deep thought, yet too vividly affected by the ordeal to stop dwelling. Her mind raced in circles, replaying the event over and over, asking the same questions but still at a loss for answers.

She didn't know how long it was before she finally moved, her frantic heartbeat gradually slowing down even as her mind continued its frantic race, but eventually she became aware that she had stood upright again, body seemingly moving of its own accord as she picked up the fire poker, gingerly reached in to turn over a log, then made a point of carefully withdrawing it before depositing the tool back in its rack. She moved like a zombie to her cot, and flopped down unceremoniously. She had never needed even a single blanket in this hellhole of a basement, but now she shivered as a cold breeze brushed against her bare skin, the ragged little dress she wore now feeling like nothing at all.

Another uncountable period of time passed, and she still couldn't sleep. The fire had died down now, and after long minutes of consideration, she stood up again, pushing her exhausted form to throw in a few more logs, arranging them to best pick up the flames that remained among the dusty cinders.

Wavering where she stood, she unthinkingly reached forward to lean against the furnace… and only after realizing what she'd done, she also realized she didn't feel warm at all. If anything, her palm felt somewhat cold from touching the metal, and she pulled her hand away to find not even a trace of pinkness on her skin.

Mind beginning to work again, she hesitantly reached forward once more, running her fingers down the side of the hulk. Nothing. She paused when her hand came to the opening… then without a second thought, she plunged her arm back into the heart of the fire. She jerked back, but not from the heat – she felt like she was freezing! Probing inward again, she found that the fire seemed colder the more intensely it burned, and she felt no pain whatsoever. She wondered idly if she had simply gone numb, the stress shutting down her neurons somehow, but that still didn't explain why she wasn't getting burned whatsoever. Besides, the small tongues of flame that lapped at her hand tickled somewhat, like the tongues of the mice sometimes did when they stole food from her very hands.

Withdrawing from the furnace, Cinder clutched at her hand again, this time trying to warm it up, frowning introspectively at the fire. Once again mentally running through the possibilities, she finally settled on a theory that seemed to make even a small bit of sense. Dashing to the bookshelf, she pored over the familiar spines, occasionally wiping one off to see the covers. There were all sorts of texts down here, leftover from when her father had died. Tremaine wasn't a woman much for reading, and had had those parts of his collection she'd been unable to sell off to rot down here alongside Cinder. Cinder didn't consider herself a bookworm, but these exciting stories and dry manuals alike had been her only non-rodent companions down here, and she had come to appreciate their company.

"Aha!" At last finding what she was looking for, the girl pulled the book out and dropped to the rug, sitting cross-legged with it open across her lap, flipping to the index in back. "Atlas, August Grimm migration patterns… Aura. Page Seventy-Two." Flipping forward again until she found the right page, she saw a whole section was dedicated to the topic. "Let's see…" Her voice cracked from disuse as she read aloud to herself. "Aura is a field of... yeah, right, got that already… protects the individual from harm, both from physical blows or falls, but from extremes of temperature, as well. That fits… umm, heals rapidly… right."

The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fit together in her head, but she needed more confirmation. Turning the pages, she found a subsection titled Activation. "There are three main methods for unlocking one's aura; with the assistance of another, by oneself through rigorous mental training, or through exposure to truly extreme extenuating circumstances. The last case is very unreliable and uncommon, but there are several commonly used methods and exercises associated with the first two, some of which are detailed below." Growling with impatience, Cinder quickly scanned across the next few pages, until something caught her eye. "In the rare recorded instances of activation caused by extreme danger, the circumstances surrounding the activation, and perhaps the circumstances of the individual's life as a whole, may be reflected in the individual's semblance." There was a footnote attached; "Semblance; see pages one-fifty-two through one-sixty-five, and Index Table Eight-B." Once again, she flipped to the highlighted section, leaning down closer to the pages as her interest grew.

"Semblances are another manifestation of an individual's soul, intrinsically tied to their aura. As a result, if their aura is not yet unlocked, they do not have a semblance, and if their aura is unlocked but drained, they cannot use it. However, it is still an immensely helpful tool, and especially so to the hunters and huntresses who so often risk their lives in protecting the people of the four kingdoms from the Grimm.

"Semblances take the form of some sort of ability or power, either tied to the individual's personality or, as discussed in chapter five, sometimes to the circumstances in which the individual's aura was unlocked. As a result, no single aura is exactly like another, though there have been attempts to broadly classify similar groups by how they manifest or what their effect may be. Some augment the individual's natural speed or strength, while others may grant them limited control over a common element or force. See Index Table Eight-B for the common classifications and groupings within the Luna-Shawcross system."

Cinder set the book down; she would continue to read in further detail later, but at the moment, she felt light-headed and unfocused. Everything came together perfectly, but it was all so unexpected… the fire had been so, so hot… she just couldn't comprehend it all right now. Breathing deeply for several long moments, she shut away the painful memories to focus on what she had just learned; she had an aura! Her mind immediately jumped to an image of Tremaine beating her, but now each blow that rained down had no effect. She could just see her stepmother growing more and more frustrated as she failed to elict a response, and a smug grin made its way to Cinder's expression.

Something else occurred to her, and she slowly stood up, futilely dusting herself off, and walked over to the furnace once more. Staring into the flames, bad memories surfaced once again, but this time the girl had no intention of reaching in again. She lifted a soot-stained hand up to the opening, watching as the orange light washed over her blackened fingers, and slowly made a gesture, putting more feeling into it. The flames inside rose higher as bidden, until they rose past the opening. The cold became too much for her, and Cinder gently let them back down. Her mind thrummed quietly, processing this new information without reaction. It hadn't quite sunk in yet.

Cinder immediately turned to lie down in her cot once more, exhaustion finally overtaking her before she even hit the pillow.

* * *

**One Month Later**

The expansive kitchen was quiet, dark save for the light of the shattered moon streaming in through a window. There was a door in the corner, barely noticeable behind the pantry as it was, that had three deadbolts. Had anyone been present that night, they would have seen a slight orange glow coming from the locks, as one-by-one, the metal heated and they began to melt. Once there was nothing but ribbons of molten silver trailing down the door, it slowly opened, and a dark, somewhat emaciated figure, coated from head to foot in black soot and carrying a thick book tucked under one arm, crept out.

Cinder took trembling steps, barely able to process the sight of anything other than her boiler room. It had been so long since she'd been up here that her once-familiar home now felt alien and terrifying. But she had done it; she was ready. She could finally escape.

Quickly and quietly gathering some non-perishables from the cupboards, she moved on to the dining room, and out into the hall. On the second floor were her step-sisters, she could recall, but more importantly, Tremaine had converted her father's old office into her bedroom, even before he'd died. Softly slipping in, warily watching the bumpy figure beneath the sheets, she searched the shelves until she'd found what she was looking for. A coin purse, ugly and tasteless in design as it was, was her goal, and careful not to rattle the lien within, Cinder slipped it into the sack she'd made of the tablecloth.

The front door was simple to unlock from the inside, as her family members had doubtless not expected Cinder to even get that far, and after stealing a spare pair of slippers from the entryway closet, she was free.

Cinder walked at first, marveling at the dark houses around her. She didn't know where she was going, of course, but it felt good just to have her home at her back. A tiny part of her actually missed that basement now, but for the most part, she just didn't care. Enjoying the gentle breeze – neither hot nor cold – she walked, then jogged. She was running now, domestic monoliths passing by on either side, until she was out of breath. She'd attempted to do some running in place to prepare for her escape, of course, but there was only so much one could do in that basement, and she was dismayed to find herself only five or six blocks away. Okay, then. One step at a time, walking again. Exhaustion began to push at the edges of her consciousness, but she ignored it, continuing on inexorably.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually the moon had set, and a bright yellow glow had begun to creep up on the horizon. Cinder found herself walking by a park of some sort, and on impulse, turned to walk across the grass, collapsing hard onto a bench. The stars were slowly fading as dawn came, and the girl wanted to take in the sight. She was reminded of her father, before Tremaine had come into their lives, and how he would sometimes wake her up so they could watch the sunrise. She did not cry as she watched this new dawn, but quietly, she whispered to herself. "Wish you could be here with me, father. Wish we could just sit and watch this together like we used to. But I'll just have to watch it for you, for now." After, she sat in silence.

An hour later, now that the sky had turned blue and the sun had risen in full, the girl stood up once more, her muscles aching but holding strong. Slinging her sack over her shoulder with one hand, she opened her book with the other, the same book she'd read the night of receiving her aura. But it wasn't open now to the explanation of semblances or auras; instead, she had turned to Index Table Ten-D; a list of academies. Near the top, listed under the kingdom of Vale, was a single word, a precious, fragile word that had solely sustained her over the past month.

Beacon.


	2. Chapter 1: The Transformation (Part I)

**So I know it's been a while. I'd kinda fallen out of the RWBY fandom during the long hiatus, but Volume 3 has brought me back on board.**

**This whole chapter was originally going to be a much shorter part of a longer chapter, but then I decided to bring in a cameo from another show I watch (cookies to those who can guess the shopkeeper's name) and the whole thing just kind of spiraled out of control. I hope you don't mind the slow pacing and stuff, and be sure to drop a review!**

**(Also, I know Cinder's characterization may still seem a bit off here, but she's getting there. Even as a good guy, I still want her to be reasonably similar to her canonical self in terms of demeanor and such.)**

**I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

The first few days after her escape were hectic.

Her father's former house, now Tremaine's, was in the upper-class neighborhoods on the peninsula northwest of Vale proper. The city-state being fairly sizable, the young woman found herself with quite a long hike through classy communities, then clean suburbs, and then the neighborhoods of lesser quality that ringed the busy downtown commercial district. The whole time she walked, she couldn't help but look around and marvel at her surroundings, even the grimy streets of the slum area. It all felt both incredibly alien and strangely familiar, and an unfamiliar set of emotions began to bubble up within her. With the sun on her back and a slight breeze in her hair, she felt… _alive_.

Of course, there were the other people she passed, some of whom crossed the street at her approach. What with her lack of proper footwear, (the slippers were wearing out quickly, she found) the sack thrown over one shoulder, the tattered and minimal dress, and her general dirty and soot-stained appearance, she got plenty of odd looks on the way too, ranging from disgust to pity to outright hostility. Yet, nobody saw fit to stop her, for better or for worse.

She knew she couldn't just walk into a store or hotel looking like this, either, so along the way she reluctantly snatched some ill-fitting but clean pants and a shirt from someone's clothesline, with the intention to return them soon enough. Then it was a matter of finding a tributary of the river that ran between Beacon Lake and the harbors and following it to a secluded spot. She made a quick act of skinny-dipping and trying to scrub as much ash off her person as possible; it was far from a complete success, but once fully clothed in the stolen garments, she looked almost like a normal human being. More importantly, as far as she could tell, nobody had seen her naked in the water.

Cinder's next task was to put those lien to use. It took a bit of wandering, but in one of the older-looking areas of the town, she finally found a clothing store that looked to look reasonably nice without coming across as snobby or overly high-class. So it was she hesitantly entered, to find herself in a dimly-lit but cozy shop, with a few racks of completely unique dresses, and a raised platform on one side with three tall mirrors, clearly meant to allow for multiple angles of view on whatever was placed up there.

"Welcome to Carousel Bou…" a slender woman with an elegantly styled head of indigo hair, presumably the shopkeeper, seemed to appear from nowhere, her introductory speech dwindling away as she took in the appearance of her customer. "Uhh… darling, if you don't mind my asking, have you been working in a coal mine?"

Cinder froze. She had known her appearance was likely going to attract attention, but she hadn't expected it would be _this_ bad. She took a few steps back, ready to run, but the shopkeeper grabbed her by the wrist before she could make a proper break for it. _Oh no, I'm in for it now._ Memories of the beatings Tremaine had delivered flashed through her head, and Cinder closed her eyes in anticipation of the first blow.

"My, you're quite lucky that you chose to wander into my particular store; unfortunate though it may be, many of my neighbors would have chased you off with a broom. Poor girl, don't you worry; it will be alright now." A hand gently brushed Cinder's ratty, still-damp hair to one side, and she opened her eyes again in surprise. The woman had donned a pair of red horn-rimmed glasses and was peering at her intently, a little too close for comfort. "I would be lying if I claimed to hold no curiosity as to what's befallen you, but I understand the need for discretion when I see it." She winked at the girl, then all but dragged her into the back of the shop and up some stairs.

Cinder was deposited in a modestly-sized bathroom, but to the girl used to a grimy toilet behind a curtain, it was godlike. "I mean this in the nicest possible way, but you really could use a shower. Use this to scrub off." A bar of thick and rough black soap was dropped in the runaway's hands, and her unexpected benefactor left before any objection could be given.

_What just happened? _Despite her disorientation, Cinder began to run on autopilot, dutifully pulling off her 'borrowed' clothing and stepping into the bathtub.

* * *

Whatever soap it was that she had been given, it certainly seemed fitting for the job. Scrubbing vigorously, it scraped away the thick layer of caked-on ash and coal dust like it was nothing, revealing surprisingly pale skin underneath. At first it was downright alarming, but she got used to the notion soon enough. She didn't know how long she spent in there, making sure every last bit of herself was properly clean this time, but by the end of it, she stood bare, feeling both more refreshed and more vulnerable than she had in a long time, over a pile of grey folds. It was like a snake's moulting, she decided, recalling a passage from one of the books that had kept her company. She had shed this old skin so she could grow better, become stronger. It was strangely poetic. Also, kind of gross.

When she exited, it was to find a fresh set of underclothes and two thick towels waiting for her. She wrapped one around her hair and dried off with the other, before putting on the proffered garments. She decided that they were much too lacey for her, but they'd do for now. Once the other towel had been wrapped around her torso like a robe, she stepped out into the hallway. Where was the owner?

"Oh, I see you're out of the shower, finally. You take almost as long as I do!" Cinder jumped. A full foot. Behind her, the shopkeeper was struggling to keep a straight face, mirth quickly winning out in the form of a chime-like laugh. "Oh, my apologies. I didn't mean to startle you, darling; I simply have this unfortunate ability to sneak up on people without trying. Anyway, you do look much better now, more befitting your personage." Cinder simply crossed her arms, glaring.

"Anyway, whilst you were refreshing yourself in there, my creative juices began to flow, and I ended up creating a potential ensemble for you. You did come in here originally for clothing, am I correct?"

Cinder nodded dumbly, feeling constantly two steps behind this woman in the conversation. It made her feel… irritated. She'd always prided herself on her intellect and wit, yet the shopkeeper's breakneck pace felt more threatening to her personal capabilities than it was likely intended to.

Another rush back down the stairs, and she found herself in a changing room with some unidentifiable cloth-y item on a hanger. It took a couple of moments for her to work up the nerve to put it on, (what was _with_ this strange woman she'd stumbled upon?) and another few to step back out into the shop. The owner directed her to stand on the raised platform she'd noticed earlier, tape measurer in hand, and Cinder obliged with a sense of resignation.

"Hmm, I'll have to make the sleeves a bit shorter," she muttered aloud, pausing the tape measure's mile-a-minute motion to jot something down on a notepad. "Skirt could stand to be a fair bit longer - you should look elegant, not scandalous."

Cinder just stood there passively, a sudden sense of exhaustion overtaking her. Just this morning, now eighteen or so hours ago, she had finally escaped captivity after… too long. She'd underestimated the real world in some way, she knew, and the endless flow of sensations and the reawakening of emotions she'd locked away so as to not go mad was starting to take its toll. She was no longer phased by any of this, simply letting it happen without any real care or input on the matter.

"Very well, you are done for now. I'll need the dress back to make the necessary adjustments." Cinder changed back into the towel quickly, handing the garment to her host and scurrying upstairs. "Please just wait in the tea room for now; this shan't take but a half hour."

Cinder sat as instructed, only glancing about the room enough to take note of surprisingly eclectic decorations, and a framed photo depicting the shopkeeper smiling with five other women of similar age but radically different appearances. Really, her focus was mainly on the windows, and what lay outside them. The sun was setting to the west, painting the sky in beautiful hues of purple and orange, and somehow the shop was at just the right angle that the distant tower of Beacon was visible through the many spires of Vale, and silhouetted perfectly by the glowing golden disk. It was like a sign, some part of her felt, that she was on the right path.

Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.

Looking down at the street below, cast in shadow but still light enough that the streetlamps had yet to flick on, she saw that the crowds from earlier had disappeared, with only a rather tall boy in a bowler hat and a rather short girl with an umbrella to populate the scene. It was no wonder, with most of the shops having closed for the night, and she was about to dismiss the whole thing.

Until the girl pushed the boy into an alleyway, and the two of them ducked behind a trash can. A moment later, a yellow motorcycle roared into view, the rumbling noise of its engine strong enough to vibrate the window before Cinder. It stopped in the middle of the road, and its driver stepped off. This woman was well-built (and rather well-endowed, to boot) and sported a long wavy tangle of bright golden hair. Both forearms, the right one looking rather robotic, were clad in heavy gauntlets with ammo belts built in. Something about her seemed… off. Her smile, even from this angle, looked cheerful and open, but there was something about her that just exuded an aura of menace.

"I finished, darling. Can I ask you back downstairs for final adjustments?"

Cinder jumped in surprise, but it was only the shopkeeper, having snuck up on her once again. This time, though, the girl was sure an elephant could have walked by without her noticing, so intent she had been on the scene below. With a last glance outside and a slight shiver, she followed the older woman back to the dressing room.

Once on the platform, Cinder paid attention this time, taking advantage of the many mirrors to examine what she was wearing. Aside from a pair of black shorts, it consisted of a dark scarlet dress, shoulderless but with long sleeves that extended to loop around her middle fingers. The skirt was asymmetric, short and straight in front but looped down around her left hip to become longer in back, angling diagonally to create a triangular sort of "tail." Her right hip had some laces to tighten or loosen the dress, ensuring it clung to her form.

"Hmm, something's missing…" The woman frowned, looking at the dress. "Wait, I have it!" She ran upstairs before Cinder could object, and there was the sound of boxes being moved back and forth. "Aha!"

She returned with several blue and green feathers of rather impressive size, and an emerald carefully cut into a diamond shape. With a sowing needle and some thread, she worked quickly to affix the accessories just above the right hip's split. Cinder was nervous about the needle, but somehow she wasn't pricked so much as once. Moments later, the shopkeeper stood back again, bidding the guest to look at herself again.

The transformation was stunning. Cinder's attention had been on the dress, but now looking at the bigger picture, she found she couldn't even recognize herself. Only a few hours ago she was filthy and ragged, more feral than any Faunus, yet now she was clean, tall, and elegant; almost _beautiful_. Cinder didn't consider herself a terribly narcissistic person, yet she couldn't help but stare. Even her hair was different, styled to cover one eye, while the lack of soot revealed grey streaks that she didn't remember having. Only her amber eyes told her that it was still her there after all, that she hadn't somehow come to inhabit the body of a stranger. It was sobering, in some strange way, but she ultimately decided this change had been for the better.

"So how do you like it?" The shopkeeper finally asked.

"It's… perfect." Cinder finally replied, herself somewhat amazed at this fact. "It really is."

The woman smiled, nodding her head. "Then all you need now are shoes; those slippers of yours aren't long for this world." She once again disappeared upstairs, returning with several different varieties of footwear in red and black. Cinder looked them over, debating with herself. A pair of high heels, or heavy boots? The former fit better with her outfit, but the latter seemed more practical. Finally, she settled on a compromise in the form of a rather curious pair of boots with pointed toes and spurs on the back. "Hmm, not a bad choice," The shopkeeper murmured, watching with a raised eyebrow as the girl traipsed down the length of the shop to test the boots.

"I think they fit," was Cinder's assessment, and the shopkeeper gave a nod of agreement. "Thank you, truly." Going over to her sack, which had been forgotten in the corner in all this, she pulled out the pouch of Lien. "How much will it be?" Before she could get a response, Cinder dumped a handful of coins in the woman's hands. She didn't know the value of the different coins, or how much the dress would be worth, and was sure this amount was inadequate.

However, after glancing at the money in her hands, the older woman gasped. "Dear, this is worth _twice _the dress!"

She tried to give back half of the coins, but Cinder stopped her. "You also gave me the boots, and let me use your shower. Please."

Stubbornly, the woman pushed the extra money toward her. "The shower was free, and the boots are included in the dress' cost." With that, she dumped the disputed coins back into Cinder's pouch. She opened her mouth to argue again, but couldn't think of any way to refute this logic, and so settled for a slight bow and a thanks.

Now that that was taken care of, Cinder grabbed her sack and prepared to leave. "Should take the… dress I was wearing before?"

The shopkeeper hesitated. "Ah, if you have any sentimental attachme-"

"I don't," Cinder interrupted.

"Then in that case, I shall… dispose of it. It's beyond saving, if you'll pardon my saying so." She gave a slight shudder thinking of the filthy, shredded piece of fabric, and Cinder gave an apologetic grin.

"Well… thank you for everything, again." Cinder gave a respectful nod, slung her sack over her shoulder, and left.

The shopkeeper stood for a moment more, mulling over the day's events with a slight frown. Then she shrugged and headed upstairs to clean up. "I do hope the poor dear has a place to stay this evening."

* * *

Cinder did in fact find a place, a reasonably decent hotel in the newer parts of town. The staff stared at her, her bag implying 'runaway' but her clothes implying 'filthy rich,' but she had the money, so they let her be. And so it was this place became her new home for the next two months, until the summer would come to a close and the next Semester at Beacon would begin. Perhaps that was a long time, but for someone who had spent six years in a single basement room, it wouldn't be so dull. Besides, this transformation in appearance was only part of her preparations, and now it was time to take the next step.

* * *

**So as you can see I did end up making some slight changes to her wardrobe here; cowboy boots instead of glass slippers, no space in the dress' upper back, and she's absent the choker and earring. This is partially just to differentiate her from evil canon Cinder, partially coming off of her present mindset and what's practical. Relatively practical. You know what I mean.**

**Also, that soap Cinder used? It's a real thing; Lava Soap. Really useful when working with motor parts, though I've only ever needed it once.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Transformation (Part II)

**So it takes me a month to write the previous chapter (with a year and a half gap before then) but only a day to write this one. Logic.**

**Still, this is a good sign. I can't promise to keep up this kind of update schedule, especially with college work and the looming prospect of failing to end my present state of unemployment, but I'll do my best to keep writing when I can, even with all this other stuff going on.**

**For now, enjoy the rest of the chapter!**

* * *

The first few days after her escape were hectic.

Cinder's old rags had been left in the shop for the strangely helpful woman to clean up, though some part of her felt a bit guilty for that, and she had her new dress and boots, but that left the question of the _other_ set of clothes she'd obtained. Having been worn over her ragged outfit, they had acquired a noticeable layer of soot on the inside. Fortunately, taking them to a laundromat was the easy part, and she was starting to get a better idea of how the coin system worked. No, The hard part was remembering which house she'd stolen them from in the first place.

She knew the general area, so that was where she headed after exiting the laundromat the next morning. Aside from the hotel key-card in her pocket, and of course the now mostly-clean clothes neatly folded up and tucked under one arm, most of her meager belongings had been left behind in her rented room, giving her a strange sense of airiness and freedom after having been so weighed down yesterday. The sky was a bright shade of blue, the sun shining down bright, and some puffy clouds drifted by in the distance. It was a peaceful day, but the girl still felt oddly pressed for time as she retraced her path from the old town toward the northeastern suburbs.

There was no real reason for it, she felt. She was free now, had enough money to last her a while, and was ultimately Beacon-bound yet still had two whole months to prepare. She should be the happiest she'd been in a while, and to a certain degree she _was_ just that. But at the same time, everywhere she looked, she received reminders of how out-of-touch with everyone she was. Sure, she had read a fair bit from a thick dictionary during her imprisonment, but even without taking into account the dusty and cracking pages, it wasn't hard to guess it was several, several years out of date.

She found herself gawking at a faunus girl with mouse ears, sitting at an outdoor cafe and tapping at a small transparent screen held in her other hand, until a businessman rudely shoved past Cinder while attempting to flag down a bright yellow car. Further along she caught sight of a kid who looked half her age, yet had strange printings on their skin, a multicolored and unappealing hairstyle long on one side and shaved to the scalp on the other, and a number of rings and spikes coming out of every possible orifice, to the point that the runaway couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl. There was so much strange about this real world that she almost wished she could go back to her burning basement and familiar old books…

_No. I will never go back, _she told herself. _I'm better than this. I can handle this._ With newfound determination, she sped up her pace, the still-unfamiliar _clomp, clomp_ of her boots drowning out any remaining doubts.

It was still an hour from noon, according to a clocktower she passed at one point, when she arrived at a familiar semicircular park, built between the wide road and the backyards of many homes. It had been where she'd made her theft the previous day, and she even managed to fairly easily recognize the exact whitewashed two-story house, the same clothesline… but there was now something standing in her way.

Yesterday, the park had been completely empty, even eerie. She had wondered where all the children were, but didn't question her luck as she slipped over the fence into a stranger's backyard. Well, here they were now. Laughing, screaming, one sitting on the ground crying; a chaotic mass of humanity at its wildest, they clambered all over the plastic and metal play equipment without a care, under the distant but watchful supervision of what she could only assume were their parents. And though no eyes were on her now, she had no doubt that blatantly climbing a tall wooden barricade to enter someone's private sanctum from the back would attract a lot of unwanted attention.

She stood there uncertainly for several moments, mulling over her options. Should she give up, and just keep the clothes? Surely someone well-off enough to live here could afford a replacement set easily enough. But still, she'd come all this way already, and she wasn't looking forward to the whole two-mile hike back without some kind of result for her efforts, even if it was just a sense of pride in herself for doing the right thing. By making up for a wrong act, admittedly, but the point stood.

Or maybe she should try to follow the winding maze of streets within, find the house from the front, and explain to the owners what she had done and that she had come to return their property? But no, that wouldn't do either; while they could be grateful, they could just as easily and rightfully remain angry for her action… and the pathetic part of Cinder that still remembered the sensation of a harsh hand against her face wasn't willing to take that risk.

Maybe she should take care of her other business for the day now, and come back later this evening? That seemed like a better course of action, she decided, assuming she didn't run into any of those 'muggers' that she'd heard about. Yes, thi-

"Wow, girl. I _understand_ liking what you see, but aren't they all a little _young_?" A sudden voice sent her train of thought derailing into a spectacular explosion of confusion, and Cinder was brought harshly back down to reality.

"Wha…?" She said, putting all her grace and wit on display. "What do you mean?" The boy who had sidled up beside her was just her age, tall and lanky and wearing a bowler cap. He wore a dressy yet casual button-up suit with yellow hazard symbols on the buttons. A shock of bright orange hair came from beneath his cap to cover one eye; the visible one was a vivid shade of green… though some sort of black marking surrounded it, giving him a strangely feminine appearance. At least he didn't have piercings, though. Looking him up and down, Cinder realized he looked familiar, though she couldn't place why.

Several things ran through Cinder's head in that moment, as she looked the boy over and made some immediate value judgements. Easy swagger - not sure if she liked or not. Feather in his cap - he had style. Skinny as a twig - Did he ever _eat_?

But of all those things, the first to come to her mouth was… "Aren't you a little young to have a cane?"

...Less than ideal. But fortunately, he just laughed, twirling the object in question around himself in an impressive display, flinging it upward and catching it behind his back before doffing his hat with a bow. "My lady, there's no such thing as too young for a cane."

Point taken. "So… who are you?" More importantly, why was he talking to her?

"Oh, you need not know my name, my fine lady. What about you?" He redirected. "What brings you here to stare at those innocent children with such wickedly deviant intentions?"

Cinder frowned in confusion. "I don't know what you're trying to accuse me of, but I wasn't even looking at the kids. I was thinking."

"About…?" The boy prompted with an exaggerated hand wave. "Inquiring minds wish to know!"

Something was nagging at the back of Cinder's mind. This boy looked familiar for some reason, which was the only reason she was still talking to him, but something struck her as wrong about this whole situation, and on top of that, she was hesitant to admit to having stolen the clothes still tucked under one arm. She turned away to think, only to find a pair of white eyes staring back at her.

There was a girl right next to her, incredibly short for the age she appeared to be. Said girl was bent over, hand outstretched to reach through the gap in the side of Cinder's skirt and into the pocket of her shorts. Only Cinder's hotel room key-card was there, but seeing as most of her possessions were still in there, she wasn't about to lose access to it without a fight. So, she slapped the girl's hand away. "What is this?"

"Well, Neo, looks like the jig is up. I'd really like to stay and chat, my lady, but I think I need to pull my laundry out of the oven." The girl darted her hand back, grabbing the first thing in Cinder's pocket before she could react. With that, the boy and girl both took off, sprinting almost comically down the sidewalk as the short girl struggled to keep up with her long-legged compatriot.

Cinder didn't even have to think about it, racing after them without hesitation. While she wasn't used to this kind of physical exertion, it seemed all the walking from yesterday had paid off somewhat. Panting though she was after only a minute or so, she pushed her burning legs as fast and hard as they could go, gradually gaining on the shorter girl.

With a final leap, she tackled the little thief, the two of them rolling across the sidewalk and almost into the street. Cinder ended up on top, but the girl wasn't without a few tricks up her sleeve - literally. A strangely thick and cloth-like rod shot out into her hand, and she promptly smacked the taller girl over the head with it. Cinder stood back, swaying drunkenly before another blow sent her back against another tall wooden fence. The thief leapt to her own feet and onto the sidewalk just in time to avoid being run over by a passing car. A long, dangerous spike suddenly shot from the tip of her rod, and she pointed it at Cinder.

This was not ideal. "Just, give me back my card," Cinder growled, trying to intimidate despite being the one threatened here. She could feel anger building up inside her; this was _her_ opportunity for freedom, and she would _not_ just let them take it from her!

"I _dunno_, my lady; your bargaining posture is highly dubious, from where I'm standing," the lanky boy drawled, evidently having doubled back the moment the fight broke out. To illustrate his point, the girl moved her lance closer to Cinder's neck, until the brunette was pressed against the fence as far as she could go. "Now, you have two choices. Wind up in the hospital, or let us go and forget we ever existed. What's it gonna be?"

"All of this for a hotel card?" Cinder replied, hoping they'd realize she had nothing worthwhile to them. "I don't have anything else on me right now." Vaguely, it occurred to her she'd dropped the clothing back at the park, but this wasn't the time for that.

The girl handed the card over to the boy, who flipped it over a few times with careful examination. "Huh, what do you know." After a nonchalant shrug, he flipped the card back to Cinder, and she caught it, albeit clumsily. The girl's weapon was still too close to her neck, though. "Listen here," he said, dropping the formalities or any pretense of kindness from his tone. "You forget this ever happened. I know some pretty powerful people in this city, and whatever you're here fo-"

"I'm going to Beacon to become a huntress." Cinder said, before cursing herself. She had just told him where to find her!

"_And whatever you're here for_," the boy repeated through gritted teeth, "I'm sure you wouldn't want to disappear one of these days, right?" Cinder nodded quietly, and he gestured for his partner to lower her lance. "Good. We'll be taking our leave, now." With that, the two walked off, the boy's cane tapping against the ground while the girl's lance retracted, before poofing out into a parasol. The girl twirled it on her shoulder, the spinning patterns of the canopy almost hypnotic.

Cinder waited for several moments before collapsing to her knees, trembling at her near-death experience. _This is what you could face every day at Beacon,_ some corner of her mind said, but she ignored it.

Looking at the retreating pair, it suddenly clicked where she'd seen them before - only the night previous, out the window of the clothing shop. They had been hiding from that muscular blonde woman on the motorcycle. Cinder smiled wryly, wondering if that was another attempted robbery gone wrong. Somehow, the thought that there was someone out there who scared that umbrella girl gave her comfort.

* * *

"Beacon, huh?" The boy muttered once they were safely out of earshot, the cogs in his mind starting to tick out the meter and cadence of a new plan. A seed had been planted in his head, offering the solution to a problem that had been troubling him as of late. "Say, Neo, what do you think of a change in scenery?"

His partner just shrugged nonchalantly, lifting her free hand to raise a middle finger in his direction. "Real mature, Neo." She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

His cousin could be such a pest sometimes.

* * *

A pile of clothes lay discarded in the corner of a grassy field, undisturbed by the children rampaging a few hundred meters away. Gradually, a shadow fell across them, however, as a looming figure walked up to them. Twisted and gnarled fingers reached down to pick up the items of clothing, probing eyes examining every crease and fold. A dark smile grew on the figure's face as they let out a terrible proclamation-

"Oh, Martha is going to be so happy I found her favorite clothes again! Those musta been strong winds yesterday, dontcha know?"

And with that, the old man named Harold slung the clothes over his shoulders and set off to tell his wife the good news.

* * *

The first few days after her escape were hectic, but after that, Cinder easily fell into a routine. She began her day with the complimentary breakfasts provided by the hotel, before heading to a nearby gym to build up her speed, stamina, and strength. (having acquired a more exercise-oriented outfit through more legitimate means.) After a lunch at a cafe, she took to the dust shops around town, reading the magazines and guides to start considering what kind of weaponry would be ideal.

After another dinner back at the hotel, she'd then head to a particular book shop run by a man named Tukson - sometimes chatting with him, sometimes just reading, she found that one aspect of her old life hadn't been ruined for her after all. She also bought a scroll fairly early on, and used that late into the night to attempt to gain a better understanding of the more modern parts of society, with… varying success. She sometimes gave up on that quickly, in favor of experimenting with her semblance. She was well aware that one wrong move could send the whole room up in flames (and she'd had to disable the smoke detector early on) but it provided that much more motivation not to make a mistake.

A month later, she found herself walking up the wide steps leading to an impressive tower. **Signal Academy for Hunters and Huntresses**, the arch above the doorway proudly proclaimed. Some part of her wished she'd been able to spend more time here, but it seemed she was only destined to spend one day here, to take the test that would allow her entrance into Beacon… or deter her from her goal for another year.

She had on her dress again, the spurs of her boots tinking comfortingly with each step. Over one shoulder she'd added a bandolier of small Burn dust canisters, in lieu of an actual weapon. It clashed against the rest of her visage, sure, but it was the most practical option for the moment.

Feeling the cool whispers of fire beginning to build in her palm as she readied herself, she stepped into the practice arena to face her destiny.

* * *

**Now, if you'll pardon me getting on my soap-box a bit, I wanted to talk about what you can expect from this fic, assuming I succeed in not putting it off forever again.**

**Writing this kind of AU is a tricky thing to do. I've looked at some stories, in this fandom and others, with a similar premise. It's hard to get right. Those that do are really good (I'd personally reccommend Rearranging The Board by Zatroopa, featuring a universe where Weiss and Ruby ended up on a team with Pyrrha and Jaune) but others… don't do so well. That's not a mark against the authors, in my opinion; again, this kind of 'dark mirror' premise is tricky to manage well.**

**It's a bit of a balancing act between old and new. You want the bad guys to be good, maybe even noble, while still recognizably being themselves. Some fics I've read have plastered the villains' names and faces onto the heroes and let the plot play out as an exact match to canon, while others have commendably tried to branch out more, but still failed to make the characters recognizable - a Roman Torchwick without his snide snarkiness is no Roman Torchwick at all.**

**(Admittedly, I did kind of undermine myself with Cinder here with the setup in the prologue, but I've worked out how to use this and gradually bring her more in line with her canon self's wily and confident nature.)**

**By the same token, you have to find a way to make the heroes of the canon universe into believable villains, to make your audience able to accept the idea of the characters they've been rooting for, even crying for, committing such heinous acts. And again, the same things have tripped people up. Putting a hero's name and face on an otherwise unchanged villain, or making them effectively an OC with the appearance of a canon character. That's what I want to avoid, and that's part of the reason I was unable to continue on this until Volume 3 ended up giving me the solution to this story's biggest plot-hole: the mere idea of an evil Ruby Rose. You'll see what I mean later on, hopefully. Of course, with both the heroes and the villains, another thing I need to take into account is character development and growing past certain vices. That, too, can be done while maintaining the other aspects that make a character who they are.**

**So that brings me to my next point - there will be a lot of familiar elements, a lot of familiar conversations, even, albeit most likely to be used for ironic parallels. But it won't be a complete rerun; ultimately, these are different characters with different ways of thinking who will tackle these issues in different ways. There's a roughly similar guideline here provided by events like the Tournament, the dance… but on a deeper level, things will look rather different if I do this right.**

**And I'll admit, I don't have this all planned down to the letter. I have the show to guide me, and I know what I plan to do different, but there's going to be a lot of stuff I'll be figuring out as I write it. Whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure. We'll see. At any rate, the next chapter will take us to a month later, at the gates of Beacon, where we'll meet the other five members of our primary cast. Probably.**

**Finally, I want to take a moment to thank Monty Oum. I never really knew about Dead Fantasy and his earlier projects until recently, but I loved his work on RvB, and I'm obviously a fan of RWBY. He's inspired me to really pursue my own original ideas and believe I can make them into a reality, and for that I'm immensely grateful. He will be missed, but his impact remains.**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope you enjoy the rest of this story, whether it updates tomorrow or another year from now. And I won't lie, I wouldn't mind hearing your two cents on how I'm doing here, whether you like the directions I take this, or disagree vehemently, or anything in between. Have a nice day. ;)**


	4. Chapter 3: Beacon On The Hill

**A bit of a shorter chapter this time around. Sorry about that.**

* * *

Another month had passed, training and reading and learning, and now Cinder had finally made it. She stood on the viewing deck of a huge airship, around her looking out the windows in wonder. Perhaps her feelings of victory were offset by the faintest bit of airsickness, but she was hardly about to go throwing up on people's shoes, and that gave her a strange feeling of superiority. Brushing that off and trying to repress the queasy feelings in her stomach, she had to admit the view really was astonishing, with the vast expanse of Beacon Lake laid out below, the dramatic cliffs and red trees of Forever Fall beyond that, and the corner of Vale still visible to the left. She wished she could see Beacon as well, but for better or worse, it seemed like that would remain a surprise until the students arrived.

Really, she was just glad to _be_ here. While her fire semblance, with the aid of burn dust and her careful exercise had been enough to help her pass the practical part of the entrance exam, she'd still received one of the lower combat scores of those who were even admitted to Beacon, the natural result of one month of learning compared to everyone else's four or so years. Fortunately, her written exam score was much higher, with only the questions pertaining to the Creatures of Grimm giving her any trouble. She'd have to pay closer attention to that; she'd be fighting them soon enough, after all.

To pass the time, she glanced about at her fellow passengers. A few less… _inspired_ individuals had chosen to wear their uniforms from Signal, but most of the rest were eclectic and unique in clothing and size. From a tall, thuggish fellow with a flanged mace strapped to his back, to a green-dressed pixie of a girl with a pair of nightsticks, to a boy dressed in shades of silver and blue with a pair of thick boots, there was quite a variety of people, weaponry, fighting styles, and especially color. Cinder couldn't help but to wonder who would end up being her partner, though the fact that there were two more airships carrying the rest of the incoming students, trailing just slightly behind this one, meant that she may have yet to meet them.

Before these thoughts could go any further, she was interrupted by the PA system crackling to life. "Landing will be in five minutes. Please leave the observation deck and be ready to exit in a calm and orderly fashion. And please do _not_ jump off the side of the exit ramps; it's a long way down."

Cinder picked up her case (another purchase made during her preparatory period, stocked with plenty of Burn dust, her exercise clothes, toiletries, a few books from Tukson's shop, and the now almost-depleted pouch of Lien. Given how horrendous her stepmother's taste was, she hoped to exchange it for something better-looking at some point.) and walked to the darker half of the ship's underbelly. In avoiding the thickest part of the crowd, she wound up on the opposite wall from the boarding ramp, and sighed. She'd have to wait a bit, it seemed.

"Ex-_cuse_ me?" A whiny voice said to her from the right.

"You're like, between me and my sis-_ter_." Said a similar voice from the left. Cinder only sighed again, resisting the urge to facepalm. Here she was, ready to witness Beacon up close for the first time, ready to enter her home for the next four years for the first time, and these new girls were threatening to spoil the moment irrevocably with just two sentences.

"Here, let's just swap places," she said to the one on the left. "That way I can stand here and you can be by your sister." The girl, in a poofy red skirt and strapless top, shrugged reluctantly, and the two sidestepped around one another. Glancing down, Cinder saw she had a pair of wicked claws attached to arm guards; interestingly, they didn't seem to transform or have a dual function like so many other weapons did. Her sister, dressed in a white version of nearly the same costume, had the high heels of her shoes replaced by blades as well; the runaway could only imagine what kind of balance was needed to walk around on that narrow point, and her respect for the latter improved slightly. Aside from the color schemes and weaponry, the only other difference between the two Cinder could see was in their hair, the red one wearing hers in a short bob-cut, while her sister's was much longer.

Finally, the doorway of the opposite wall began to open, the students shuffling forward to begin disembarking, and Cinder felt her excitement rising again. Here it was; this was her moment. Surprisingly, nothing occurred to disrupt it; she and the twins were the absolute last to exit, so she was able to take her time to gawk at the sight before her.

Three large, circular platforms rested on the very edge of the cliff; docks for the airships suspended hundreds of feet above the lake. Wide pathways led from each one, meeting to become a broad avenue leading straight to the school, lined on both sides by lampposts and some red-leafed trees, likely from Forever Fall. Near the far end of the Avenue, she could see some sort of fountain or statue, which seemed to be the very centerpoint of several concentric rings of arches, like the aqueducts of Mistral. Between the first and second rings was a pair of half-circle pools bisected by the main avenue, while the much wider space between the second and third rings were open grass fields. Of course, the most impressive aspect of the scene was the buildings, the rest of the campus, standing beyond all of this, practically a miniature town in its own right with a cityscape to match. In the center of it all, Beacon Tower, Vale's part of the Cross-Continental Transmat System, stood tall and proud, the green lights from near the top serving as… well, a beacon.

The view from Vale had nothing on this.

Following the crowd, Cinder found herself passing the statue (depicting a huntsman and huntress standing atop a stone slab while a creature of Grimm cowered below) to a huge set of doors leading into the first building. Inside was some sort of ampitheatre, with a glass dome to show the bright blue sky above. She could see bleachers encircling the room, a story higher, but steep silver walls below them created a sort of pit or lower level, where the first-year students found themselves forced to stand. On the far side was a small raised stage with a waiting microphone, in front of an ornate wooden backdrop carved into shapes reminiscent of the arches outside. The whole room's decor was subtly supplemented by blue holo-barriers, creating a safety railing before the bleachers and hanging like banners from the stage backdrop.

Cinder found an open spot right by the door, next to the silver-haired boy she'd seen on the ship earlier. His zip-up shirt was a faded, greyish shade of blue, with vertical black stripes along the sides, while his sleek polyester pants inverted the two colors' placement. A grey kerchief or sash hung out from said pants like a sideways, miniature cape, imprinted with what she could only assume to be his symbol in black and white. Finally, he wore a pair of vambraces to protect his arms, and a heavily armored set of boots; she could make out a belt of white shells beneath the dark armor plates. For some reason he looked familiar, though she couldn't place why.

"Like what you see?" He finally asked, turning to her with a smirk, then stuck out a hand. "M'name is Mercury."

She slowly accepted his handshake, getting a rather firm grip. "Mercury… Mercury Black, the tournament champion?" She remembered seeing a match being broadcast in the cafe a few weeks back. "I must say, I found your fights to be rather impressive, and frankly inspiring. It's a pleasure to meet you in person." And with that she turned her attention back to the stage, oblivious to the way his face fell at her instant recognition.

By now, someone had appeared on the stage, the glass roof becoming opaque to dim the light, while a spotlight shone down on the newcomer to direct all attention to him. The whispers of the crowd were already dying down, before he even spoke. "I'll… keep this brief." The man was fairly tall, his stoic tone and posture offset by his wild mop of grey hair and the frankly bizzare tinted reading glasses he wore. His attire was dark, consisting of a black jacket over a black vest and a bright green undershirt. He leaned on a cane in one hand, with a coffee mug held in the other. Though he seemed normal enough, there was something about him, something in the way he leaned on his cane, that felt off to Cinder. She couldn't place why.

After a short pause, the man began speaking. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." _Do I? _Cinder couldn't help but wonder. "But I look amongst you now, and all I see is wasted energy, needing purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, or shelter you from your burdens, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to _you_ to take the first step." And with that, he turned walked away, leaving the room to erupt into whispers.

For her part, Cinder was struggling to suppress the sudden doubts that the speech had brought up. Her entire focus these past months had been on getting into Beacon, and she hadn't had the time to consider what she'd do once she was in, let alone after she graduated._ If_ she graduated. What the man had said about sheltering from burdens… perhaps it was presumptuous of her, but it almost seemed to have been directed specifically at her. Or at least, it certainly felt that way.

But someone else was speaking now, and she looked back up to find a blonde woman (Glynda Goodwitch, if she recalled correctly) now at the microphone, looking slightly apologetic despite her stiffness. "You will leave your items in the armory, then gather in the ballroom tonight for rest. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

She strode off the stage as the room returned to normal, the students filing out after her like a herd of sheep. Cinder followed along, still lost in thought.

* * *

Evening had fallen, and with it, the sun. In its place, the shattered moon shone in through the windows, casting silver rectangles upon the ballroom floor. It had been a long day, with a loose tour of the campus being followed by a stop at the armory to place their belongings into temporary lockers. By this point, Goodwitch's patience was on the wane after a few hours dealing with the rowdier of the prospective students, and Cinder frankly couldn't blame the woman. Fortunately for her sanity, it was now time to sleep.

Except she couldn't. She usually got to sleep much later than this, and she couldn't practice her Semblance here, without setting off a fire alarm or something. So that left… reading. After changing into her workout clothes (in lieu of proper pajamas) and grabbing a candelabra from the back of the room, she found and claimed an empty corner between a support beam and a window. Fortunately, she'd had the foresight to take a book from her bag before leaving it in the armory, and now opened it up to resume reading. _How To Win People And Influence Friends_, by Shale Carnegie. After that, she was lost in her own world, easily ignoring the background noise and mutterings of people still getting ready for bed.

Until someone tripped over her legs. "Sorry!"

Cinder found herself staring into a pair of vibrant red eyes, her book knocked aside by the other person's fall. She blinked. The other person blinked. Neither moved. "Can I help you?" Cinder finally asked.

This prompted movement, the other person shuffling backwards until they were no longer nose-to-nose, then awkwardly clambering off of Cinder's legs. "Sorry, again." The newcomer finally stood up and dusted herself off, and Cinder looked her over. She had a full bob of light mint-green hair with straight-cut bangs, which contrasted well with both her dark skin and those bright red eyes. Her outfit consisted of white shorts under brown chaps, and an olive green tube-top under a white vest, left unbuttoned so as to draw attention to her… generous… cleavage. Finally, she wore a pair of olive fingerless gloves. "Are you okay?"

Cinder took a moment to retrieve her book before answering. "Just startled. You're the one who fell; are _you_ okay?"

"Uh, yeah; just fine. Sorry." The girl gave an awkward smile, hand behind her head.

"Please, stop apologizing." _It's getting kind of annoying, _Cinder added mentally. "It's late and we're all tired; tripping like that is perfectly understandable."

"Well, when you put it that way…" The mintette shrugged, "I'll let you read now." She walked off before Cinder could say anything, and with a sigh, the latter returned to her book. The mintette bumped into someone else, apologizing again. _Seems like a bit of a klutz. Pretty looking, though._

Twenty minutes later, she felt her eyelids beginning to droop, the words on the page blurring as her focus waned. Cinder bookmarked her spot and picked up the candelabra, but something caught her eye. The mintette was walking by again; this had to be the second or third time since she'd tripped on Cinder, a bedroll clutched under one arm.

"Hey." Cinder called, keeping her voice soft for the benefit of those already asleep. "Still looking for a place to lie down?" At the dark girl's confused nod, she gestured to the spot along the wall beside her. "This one's open."

It was with agonizing slowness that the other girl advanced toward the proffered spot, like a feral cat attempting to sneak into a bakery. Every movement Cinder made caused her to freeze up, but finally, _finally_ she unrolled her sleeping bag perpendicular to Cinder's and crawled in.

Just as Cinder blew out the candles, she thought she saw a familiar shock of orange hair across the ballroom. It was too late, though, and she was plunged into darkness. Putting that out of her mind, she set down the candelabra and squirmed down into her own bedroll.

"Thank you," came from her left. "I'm Emerald, should have introduced myself before. What's your name?"

"Cinder. Cinder Fall. It's nice to meet you." She thought Emerald said something else, but her eyes closed of their own accord, sending her off to a long dreamless sleep.

* * *

**So when I first came up with this idea, back in 2014, I planned for there to be shipping. It would not have been subtle. In this regard, then, it's actually a good thing it took until now for me to get back on this. Don't get me wrong, I'm still an unapologetic shipper, I won't deny it. (For better or for worse…) But I have come to the realization that I don't generally like shipping in a story unless it's right there in the central premise. Had this for example been conceived of as an Emberald focused story within the backdrop of a dark mirror AU, then this would be very different indeed, particularly in the later chapters. But this is first and foremost a dark mirror AU, and other stuff second, so I don't feel comfortable including a romantic subplot. Idunno, just a weird tick I've developed lately.**

**That being said, I'm not above a healthy dose of ship **_**tease**_**, particularly with the dance coming along sooner or later. Just as a warning. But yeah, overall it won't amount to much unless I get to the parallel of a part in like Volume 7 or something where Blake announces her unconditional love for Yang; if the show starts making things canon, **_**then**_** I **_**might**_** feel a bit more comfortable doing the same. Another thing is that while I do have certain shipping preferences with these characters, I'd rather let things develop naturally instead of forcing a romantic relationship that might not make as much sense in this context as I'd like.**

**That brings me to another point - how far will I go? That will honestly depend on how long this goes before I write myself into a corner or something, or get bored of the premise, which I don't see being likely anytime soon. RWBY is still ongoing, and could last quite a while, giving me a lot of potential material to work with in the future. So with all that in mind, I'm setting myself a few milestone events and loose plot arcs, the conclusion of which could serve as an acceptable (though not entirely ideal) ending to the story, all the way from our present point to an approximate parallel to the Volume 3 finale. If I can get there, that would be great, and if I can go further (once Volume 4 and so on are out) that would be even better. But for the moment, I'm just going to focus on getting through the initiation arc.**

**And on that note, next chapter, we meet the last of our main characters, and the initiation begins!**

**Oh yeah - more costume changes. The twins aren't too different, but they're missing the fur scarves, and aren't as dolled-up in general. Mercury... is pretty much the same, I didn't really feel the need to change his design much at all. As for Emerald, I couldn't find an adequate way to describe her elaborate top... thing, so I changed it to a vest for simpicity's sake. Once again, let me know what you thought of this chapter, and what needs to be improved!**

**Outtake: **She strode off the stage as the room returned to normal, the students filing out after her like a herd of sheep. Colorful bipedal sheep that were armed to the teeth. Something like that. _Nailed it,_ thought Cinder, as she followed along.


	5. Chapter 4: One Small Step

**To InfernoLeo9; the reason this story ended up being M was due to the scene in the prologue where Cinder's hand got burnt. The rest of the story will be more along the lines of a "T" rating.**

**I want to thank all of you for your reviews and feedback; this has really helped me keep going on a somewhat consistent basis. It feels nice to be able to update this rather frequently, and I hope to keep it up!**

**Alternate Title: "One Small Step For Cinder, One Giant Leap For Cinder-Kind"**

* * *

The next morning found Cinder waking late, with Emerald already gone and most of the other students dressed and packed up in preparation for whatever came next. The runaway stumbled her way through the morning routine, using the bathroom to change and wash up before retrieving her bedroll and book.

Not long after that, Professor Goodwitch arrived. "Now that everyone…" She frowned at the sight of three or four students still asleep in the middle of the room, before telekinetically jolting them awake with a flick of her riding crop. "Now that _mostly_ everyone is up and about, it's time for breakfast. After that, you will report to the armory to retrieve your weapons - and then initiation begins."

The stragglers scrambled to finish preparing for the day, while Glynda herded everyone else out the doors. The morning air was brisk and cool, helping Cinder shake off her remaining grogginess as they walked across the campus. Everyone else was sweating and groaning, and it took the runaway an embarrassingly long moment to remember that her sense of temperature had become reversed since the night her aura had been activated.

Unfortunately, as she'd found over the past couple of months, that applied to food, too. Breakfast was thus a strange affair, and she ended up spending more time appreciating the vaulted, cathedral-like ceiling and high glass windows looking out over campus than on actually eating her pancakes. They were still delicious enough, certainly, but despite the tantalizing smells, they ended up tasting like they were still thawing. This little side-effect of her semblance was going to be annoying down the road unless she found a suitable workaround.

She was distracted from her thoughts by the loud giggling of the two girls sitting to her left. "Ooh, Mercury Black? _The_ Mercury Black?" The boy Cinder recognized as having stood by in the auditorium yesterday had sat down on the far end of the table, sending the two into excited tittering. Cinder found him impressive, sure, but whatever they were doing was on a whole other level. "I'm glad I decided not to transfer to Haven after all!"

Evidently they weren't as quiet as they thought, as Cinder saw him roll his eyes at that comment. Deciding she didn't want to be seen near the two, the runaway quickly scooted down the bench a few spaces. She could still hear their conversation, hopefully, but she wouldn't be lumped in with them.

"Mercury's cool," some boy across from the two fangirls said, "But he's not as good as Pyrrha Nikos was. If those two fought, she'd totally win."

"Yeah, but Mercury would never turn around and do what _she_ did, either," the girl shot back. "Don't tell me you're one of those nutjob conspiracy theorists who thinks she's innocent!"

"No, I'm one of those sane and rational people who doesn't buy into the herd mindset about her!"

"Who is Pyrrha Nikos?" Cinder asked, interested now despite her better judgement. All three turned to look at her like she was insane.

"Have you been living under a rock for the last six years?"

"Close enough," Cinder admitted. "I'm just curious."

"She was the tournament champion before Mercury," the boy said. "She won the Mistral regional tournament three years in a row. Incredibly skilled, incredibly famous. Even got her face on the Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box for a while." Cinder noticed he was eating a bowl of cereal. "But then-"

"Will all first-year students report to the Armory? Again, all first-year students report to the Armory." Professor Goodwitch's voice announced over the PA system, and everyone hurried to finish their meals. Cinder might have been disappointed about the interruption, if she wasn't so nervous and excited for what was to come next.

* * *

Affixing her bandolier of dust vials over her shoulder, Cinder checked her bag one last time in case there was anything else she might need. Not for the first time, and certainly not the last, she found herself wishing she had a proper weapon already, and wondering if her semblance alone would really be enough to pass whatever test initiation offered. She'd heard rumors from the other students that a forest was somehow involved. Merely having the weight of something in-hand would be a reassurance right now, and she cursed her indecisiveness. Folding-frame technology was capable of some impressive things, sure, but even after two months of familiarizing herself with the different options available, both on the gun and blade side of things, it all seemed too convoluted, with too many opportunities for something to jam or go wrong.

Either way, the fact was that she had no weapon now. Her semblance and her dust would just have to be enough. With that thought quenching her doubts, she closed her suitcase and then the locker it was in, and turned to leave… and bumped into someone as she did so.

The first thing she saw was an emblem depicting a thorny and twisted rose in red and white, printed on the back of a black jacket. The boy she'd just run into was a head taller than her, broad-shouldered yet lean… and perhaps it was just the way he stiffened at the accidental contact, but he seemed somehow vaguely yet inherently intimidating. "You got a problem?" Cinder took a step back at the hostile growl, as the boy turned around to glare at her. She vaguely noted his red-and-brown hair and the pair of back-swept bull horns within, but most of her focus was on his confrontational stance and narrowed brown eyes, looking her up and down as though she was something disgusting he'd found on the bottom of his shoe.

"Uh… sorry. I didn't see you there." Cinder quickly nodded her head to placate him, and stepped to the side to pass him. Or rather, tried to, as he moved to block her path.

"You didn't _see_ me?" he demanded, gesturing to indicate their difference in size. "I find that hard to believe."

_Well now, aren't _you_ quite the charmer?_ She wanted to say, but instead opted for "I wasn't looking where I was going. No offense was intended." She met his eyes, her hard but honest gaze against his aggressive glare, trying not to show how daunted she was. Their staring contest lasted far too long, but at last he relented, stepping back to let her pass as his grip on his sheathed sword loosened up. Cinder didn't even remember him grabbing it to begin with, but opted not to stick around in case he changed his mind. Definitely not the most friendly of individuals…

Doing her best to put the encounter out of mind, she turned her thoughts back to the upcoming initiation, her trepidation rising. If she'd felt ready walking into Signal's testing, she felt considerably less confident when faced with the unknown. She didn't let it show, of course, stride steady and back straight as she waited for the announcement to move on, wandering among clumps of students who were still retrieving their weapons, or had already done so and were chatting about team assignments. Still, she couldn't deny a feeling of unease. What if she failed? Would it be another year before she got a second chance, or would she be barred permanently?

Less important but still alarming was the prospect of partners. If she was given a choice of who to work with, she had no idea who she'd pick. Most of these people knew each other already from Signal Academy, had a pre-established set of relationships. She was a stranger, had no way of relating to these people. Who did she even know here? The twins… but they'd probably choose each other. _Mercury Black would be good in a fight, but..._ She glanced over to one corner of the room, where three or four people were practically clambering over each other to talk to the harried tournament winner… _his fame would be a problem._ She hoped she didn't end up on a team with him. There was Emerald; _she seems nice enough, but with that level of clumsiness, she might be more of a burden than anything._ And the bull Faunus she'd just met… he already seemed to hate her. Out of the question.

Of course, she'd also heard rumors that suggested partners were assigned rather than chosen… which seemed almost worse. If she ended up with someone nice, that would be all well and good, but there was just as much likelihood of ending up with someone completely incompetent or completely horrible, and she'd be stuck with them for the next four years.

Mercifully, her gloomy thoughts were interrupted by the crackling of the speakers. "Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately." Glynda Goodwitch had amazing timing, Cinder decided.

* * *

Beacon Cliff comprised the north and northeast border of the campus, the prospective students following a worn dirt pathway through a line of trees to find themselves standing on a narrow stretch of open grass… facing an abrupt drop. Cinder had to admit the landscape was impressive, with a vast sea of green spread out before them, a white-topped mountain looming in the far distance. To the left, the corner of Beacon Lake and the dramatic red-stained peaks of Forever Fall beyond provided a solid limit, while to the right, the forest stretched on as far as the eye could see.

She turned her attention back to the more immediate scene; Goodwitch and the strange man from the auditorium speech were present, the former directing the newcomers to stand on a long line of metal plates on the edge of the cliff. Cinder had a bad feeling she knew where this was going, but followed suit, taking her place between the mace-wielder she'd seen on the ship, and a teal-robed girl with a complex-looking broadsword.

It was the man in green who spoke first, after a sip of his ever-present coffee mug. "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Cinder was once again reminded of her mere two months of preparation.

Goodwitch stepped forward now, her tablet-scroll held open on one arm. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… _today_." Despite the clear skies, something about the way that proclamation had been made seemed like flashing lightning and thunder would have been more appropriate. Cinder simply nodded, resigning herself to the whims of chance.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," the man said. Cinder once again nodded. "That being said… the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?" Cinder was left in nothing less than pure shock, her visions of Beacon as perfect crashing down around her - and apparently a few others in line felt the same way. The man just gave an enigmatic smile at their dismay.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do _not_ hesitate to destroy everything in your path…" His smile vanished, his tone turning deadly serious, "Or you _will_ die." After a pause to let that sink in, he continued. "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and be graded appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Cinder had several. _Are you insane? How many students have died here, anyway? Who are you anyway?_ But now didn't seem like the time. Nobody else spoke up, either.

"Good! Now, take your positions, and remember your landing strategy."

Everyone shifted on their tiles, striking a pose; Cinder instinctively moved one foot back and the other forward, crouching slightly on her tile to keep her center of gravity steady. She was sweating now - she knew what a landing strategy _was_ from her research, but hadn't paid much mind to coming up with one herself… and now it was going to bite her in the ass. Already, two of the students at the far end of the line were launching through the air... It wasn't like she'd had a good place to practice, while at the hotel. Right? Another person was launched, only three people left before Cinder's turn. She knew Signal academy had a whole class dedicated to teaching landing strategies and how to handle falling; the students were expected to know them when they came to Beacon. The mace boy was sent flying with a sudden whoosh of air; Cinder wasn't ready…

_WHOMP_

Cinder found herself soaring through the air, the wind roaring in her ears as the cliff fell away behind her. She experienced many things in the next several seconds, but strangely, terror was not one of them - it had been left on the ground, alongside her stomach. After the initial blankness of thought that came with her abrupt ascent, the first thing to enter her mind was just how much she wanted to hurl. That would be gross, though, so she turned her thoughts to the more pressing issue at hand - the fact that she was soaring hundreds of feet in the air, the ground below turned to incomprehensible streaks of green and brown. The good news was that due to her stance upon launching, she had managed to keep herself fairly steady, diving headfirst like a missile instead of spinning about wildly. The bad news was that meant she was going faster than she otherwise might… and the ground was beginning to rise up to meet her.

Cinder extended one arm forward, willing a ball of flame into being before her. This was something she'd experimented with a few weeks ago, gradually narrowing down the focus of the flame, until a thin but intense stream of fire speared out before her. Last time, it had nearly shot her across the hotel room and out the window - this time, she hoped it would slow her fall.

A few moments later, a perfectly innocent tree that had never hurt anybody gained an enormous gaping hole through its trunk, the inside walls of the new opening burnt and charred. Beyond it, a short trench was freshly dug into the ground, surrounded by a raised rim of upturned dirt. At the end of this trench, Cinder groaned, before standing up and brushing herself off. "That… could have gone better." She announced to the empty woods, sounding more calm than she felt.

Glancing up to see the last few students still flying overhead, she oriented herself approximately northward and began walking. Now that she was down among the trees, she found the silence unnerving. Aside from the trees, grass, and surprisingly thick underbrush that forced her to watch her feet, there was no sign of life. No squirrels or birds, no Grimm, and no other students. It was eerie, and Cinder did her best to pick up her pace.

Perhaps if she'd been watching where she was going, she would have known to make a detour around the clearing. But still focused on not walking straight into a bush as she was, she was only loosely aware of the presence of sunlight up ahead, and instinctively gravitated toward it. As she stumbled out into the bright flat area, she briefly glanced upward - meeting the vivid green eyes of a too-familiar boy on the other end. His orange hair, his bowler cap, the cane he was struggling to extricate from a rather thick fern…

"What are _you_ doing here?"

* * *

Roman Torchwick was running out of options, and the trees were getting too close for comfort. Gripping Melodic Cudgel by the base of the shaft, he lifted it above him in preparation. If this didn't work, he was toast. If this worked… well, he really hoped it would work.

Lashing out at the last second, he successfully hooked his cane around a thick tree branch, and felt his stomach lurch as the sky and earth inverted around him. He swung around once, twice, before settling, his momentum arrested. Glancing about, he saw he was still hanging fairly high above the forest floor, at the edge of a clearing, Melodic Cudgel being the only thing preventing him from a fifty-foot fall - and his hands were slipping. It wasn't that he feared the drop, not after just surviving one from much higher, but he didn't want to have to climb this tree again to retrieve his beloved cane.

So he shifted his weight, loosing all his muscles before suddenly coiling upward, legs lifting to generate momentum for a little hop. The cane's handle lifted from the branch just a few inches, and he tried to unhook it.

It didn't work. And to make matters worse, the branch was beginning to crack. "Oh, you've got to be fu-" With a further groan, the heavy branch peeled away from the tree, sending the rogue plummeting. Unprepared for this, he landed on his rear, unable to roll away in time.

The branch stopped just short of falling, the leafy tips of it grazing the top of his head while Melodic Cudgel remained caught dozens of feet above. After a long moment spent motionless, abject terror was washed away in favor of more frustration, and Roman crawled backward until he no longer had the wooden spears of impalement hanging quite so literally over his head. The branch was holding on by no more than a thin strip of bark, somehow, leaving his weapon just out of reach. This was just great; lost in the middle of an unfamiliar forest probably teeming with Grimm, Neo had probably already partnered up with someone completely different, and he had no way to get at the one thing still familiar to him in this stupid place. Fueled by a combination of frustration and fear, he punched the nearest section of gnarled branch.

And the aforementioned wooden spears of doom plunged downward in front of him, sinking deep into the soft dirt. Melodic Cudgel, jostled by the sudden motion, was sent flying, and landed in a thick fern bush nearby.

Okay, maybe this wasn't so bad. Right? Roman quickly rushed to where his sweetheart lay, picking her up. Or at least he tried to - the hooked end had landed amidst the leaves, and had evidently caught on something there. As hard as he tried to pull, it just refused to budge. He'd thought before was bad, but this was somehow even more so. _At least this can't get any worse._

Suddenly, a vaguely familiar girl in a dark red dress stumbled into the clearing on the opposite end, looking up just as he glanced over, and the two locked eyes. After an instant of frozen surprise, her expression morphed into an angry scowl. "What are _you_ doing here?"

_Well, shi-_

* * *

For his part, the thief looked just as surprised as Cinder felt. She remembered him, from the park the day after her escape. He and the umbrella girl… she quickly looked about the clearing in case she was here too, and her shoulders slumped in relief at her absence. But then her gaze turned back to the boy, and she stalked forward. "I said, what are you doing here?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" He asked, suave attitude returning in an instant. "I'm just a fellow applicant to Beacon's oh-so-educational system of learning."

Cinder threw up her arms, voice raising with them. "YOU'RE A CRIMIN_-_"

"Criminally good-looking and handsome young man? Why, you're absolutely right!" The boy flashed a smile complete with a small twinkle and a ding sound. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance for the very first time, stranger whom I have never met a day in my life! Roman Tor- err, _Candle_wick, at your service!"

Cinder stopped altogether, slumping as she struggled to wrap her head around his sheer _nerve._ He'd robbed her before and they both knew it, and rather than acknowledge or deny that fact, he was using it to _mock_ her. She had no idea how to respond to this…

Finally, though, she straightened up and stretched out an arm. "Hello, Roman. It's a pleasure to meet you for the very first time, fellow stranger." She kept her voice even, but she knew he knew she knew what was really going on here. Still, she'd play along for now, and worry about the reason for his presence once they'd survived initiation.

But that didn't mean she wouldn't have the last say here. The moment he gripped her hand to shake, she pulled backward, pulling him off-balance. His cane was finally dislodged from the bushes, with the distinctly non-natural of something electronic being broken, and a few sparks shooting from the ferns.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Whipping his head around so fast his hat flew off, Roman brought up his cane… to find it mercifully undamaged. Cinder stared at him, then at the bush, shock giving way to confusion as her witty comeback was left forgotten.

Stepping closer, she found a small metallic black box with a lens on one end - a camera. Within the bush, carefully concealed until its cover had been torn away was a small metal pole jutting up from the forest floor, a few wires still poking out of the top. "Well, that would explain how they're monitoring us." Roman had crouched down beside her, picking up the camera and looking into its lens as though he could see what lay behind.

Cinder just hoped they wouldn't get in trouble over this. "Come on, let's get going… _partner_." The word left a sour taste in her mouth, and she was suddenly wondering if the angry bull Faunus might not have been a better choice after all.

* * *

**By necessity, the ages are a little bit wonky in this alternate universe. I've tried to keep it relatively low-key, but it still plays a fairly big part in how certain character's backstories have changed, with Adam being possibly the most straightforward example. This is something I'll go into more again later, once more backstory has been discussed and we've seen more from the antagonists, but for now I'll just say that Emerald, Mercury, the Malachite twins, and Neo are still more-or-less the same as in canon, while Adam, Cinder, and Roman are de-aged a fair bit.**

**The other important thing I wanted to point out is that while Adam is more-or-less in the same situation as Blake is in canon, there's a big difference in how they go about things - the bow. While it wouldn't be hard for Adam to find a snazzy hat to go with his ensemble and hide his horns, that isn't his style. Blake hid her ears in an attempt to shield herself from discrimination (probably a wise move with Weiss around, at least initially) and getting people to know her for who she is without having to look past the cat ears first. Adam, however, is much more stubborn and aggressive, for better or for worse, and leaves the horns in the open, with the mindset that anyone who can't deal with him being a Faunus isn't worth his time, and also as something of a challenge to those who might get up in arms against him.**

**On the subject of Adam, and more specifically his canon incarnation… Is it just me, or would he be well-suited for a fighting game? Something about his appearance and general vibe reminds me of characters from Guilty Gear, BlazBlu, and similar games I've seen around. Hmm.**

**As for Roman… he has his reasons for being here. This will be looked at in more detail later on, don't worry.**

**As per usual, be sure to let me know what you thought, and if there's anything I could stand to improve. I hope you enjoy this!**


	6. Chapter 5: Emerald's Forest

**I'm not usually one for counting stats, but I just wanted to note that this story has broken 2,000 views. So that's cool. :)**

**At The Rakiat: Thank you, I'm glad you like it! Anyway, I understand Emerald's portrayal in the previous chapter may have been a bit off-putting, but hopefully this one should shed better light on her. We get a lot of different viewpoints in this chapter!**

* * *

_WHOMP_

Emerald Sustrai had seen it coming, being near the end of the line. Was she scared? Definitely. Was she ready? Probably not. But when she found herself soaring hundreds of feet in the air, it was with a strange sense of calm that she readied her weapons, blades snapping forward in preparation for the landing. She could take care of herself, just as always, and so she would.

As the trees rose to greet her, she pulled a secondary trigger on each weapon, and the blades launched forward, trailing behind them a pair of long chains. She could feel the impact as they sunk deep into wood, and hit a switch to begin reeling herself in as quickly as possible. Acceleration became deceleration as she passed just beneath the branch she'd latched to, and she let her chains loose again to turn a dangerously sudden halt into a gentler stop. Moments later, the girl landed on her feet in the middle of the forest, unlatching her blades and drawing them back into position.

It was just like base-jumping, really, but with the wood of trees instead of metal streetlamps to catch her fall. And no police, either, which was a nice change.

What wasn't so nice was the sudden roar from behind that interrupted her self-congratulatory reprieve. Whipping about, the thief found herself confronted with a dark beastly form, the white mask with red markings atop its narrow snout identifying it as some variety of Grimm. She didn't have time to examine it any closer, however, as it lashed forward without warning. The girl had no time to dodge the hit, and while her Aura was enough to prevent the raking claws from piercing her, she was still sent crashing into a nearby tree trunk.

As she stumbled upright, the thief ignored the way the world spun around her in favor of readying her weapons once more. Even through her dizziness, she saw the creature's next attack coming, ducking and rolling beneath its swinging arm and bringing up her left gun to slash and then shoot it in the back. The Grimm only growled in response, spinning on a dime and dropping into a ready crouch.

The two leapt at the same time, the Grimm forward and the thief straight upward to let it pass below. Touching down one foot on the tip of one of its bony spines, she let herself fall forward before kicking off, to put some distance between them. She then loosed a chain to swing around a tree, the change in direction slowing her enough for her to come to a smooth landing, while she was already bringing her other gun up to fire at the charging Grimm. A lucky shot hit it right in the eye, causing it to rear back in surprise more than pain and providing the opening she needed.

Emerald launched herself at the beast, whipping out her chains to wrap around its neck - the blades embedded themselves deep in its flesh, and with a quick tug in opposite directions, its head was neatly removed, rolling to a stop at the girl's feet. Emerald spat off to the side as it instantly began to dissolve.

The distinctive _bang_ of a shotgun behind her had Emerald spinning about again, only to find a boy dressed in black and silvery blues standing there, one heavy-booted foot still resting on the shattered bone mask of another Grimm. Strangely, he was holding up a hand to cover his eyes. "Thought you could use some help." He said, no small amount of smugness in his tone.

"I had it covered!" Emerald rebuked. She didn't need to put up with this guy's crap.

The boy simply chuckled. "Didn't look like that from where I was standing."

Emerald huffed and crossed her arms, looking away. "Says the guy with his eyes covered in the middle of a deadly forest. Seriously, what's up with that?" It made him look ridiculous. Or at least, more ridiculous than he already did.

"Hey, I want to keep my options open, okay? Don't need to get stuck with someone I hate for the next four years, just because of this _stupid_ test." The thief hated to admit it, but he had a point there. She already had a partner in mind; that girl she'd 'accidentally' fallen on yesterday evening hadn't had anything in her pockets, but had offered to let the stranger take the spot next to her. Someone nice and gullible who bought her 'helpless klutz' act easily.

Aloud, she only said "You're such a tool."

Strangely, he smiled at that, throwing his arms wide as he proclaimed "I aim to please."

They stared at each other for several moments before they realized his mistake, and spoke simultaneously. "Aw, _crap_."

* * *

Melanie Malachite ran through the forest as fast as she could, fueled by a potent mix of single-minded determination and desperate worry. Anyone else would have had trouble making their way through the thick undergrowth and foliage, but the tireuse was an expert in balance, and easily instinctively found the right places to set her feet down even with her hurried pace, and letting her bladed heels take up the slack when the going got particularly tough. Truthfully, this was new to her, being more accustomed to the more urban, hard-floored environs of Vale, but experience with many an expensive imported rug had taught her to keep her weight on the balls of her feet and not to stop long enough to settle back, when working with softer ground like this.

_Gotta find Millie, gotta find Millie_ ran through her head repetitively, driving her onward. Miltiades (or Militia if you were close family, Millie if you felt like taking risks, Mills if you were outright suicidal) could take care of herself, Melanie knew, but still she worried. Despite having been born only three minutes earlier, the protective older sister instinct was strong within her, and she needed to make certain with her own two eyes that her sibling was safe. _Plus, I don't want her to end up partnered with some tall creepy guy…_

Up ahead, a creature of Grimm was prowling past with its back turned to her, and without breaking stride, the white-dressed girl leapt up and sunk her heels into the middle of its back before it could noticed. Unfortunately, it instantly reared up at the contact, catapulting her into a tree. Surrounded by thick, leafy branches for the second time today, the tireuse let out a long sigh. It had taken an embarrassingly long time for her to get down the first time, and that had been without the added complication of an angry Beowulf clawing at the trunk. As good as she was with her boots, they made climbing rather more difficult than it needed to be. She didn't even move for several moments, just listening to the grunts and snarls below, and hoping against hope that her sister would be okay.

Then suddenly, she heard the sound of running footsteps. _Shink! _A dull thud and a wet squelch. _Shink! _Another, larger thump. Pushing aside a smaller branch, she saw some boy in black and red standing over the dissolving Grimm, hand still on his sheathed sword. With its back to him, the creature had been caught unawares as he stabbed it through the middle and then pulled up to cleave it in half. Before the girl could hide herself again, he glanced upward, most likely curious as to what had attracted the beast's attention, and their eyes met.

"Um, hi-" She was interrupted as he drew his sword again, making a single aura-infused slash upwards, and several of the tree branches around and under Melanie were left to fall to the ground - bringing her down with. Leaves fluttered and wood crashed around her head, and the girl landed in an undignified pile in front of the boy. Climbing to her feet shakily, she stretched an arm out to shake hands with her new partner. "Thanks for that, I guess." Inwardly, she was wondering who in their right minds would wear a belt made of domino tiles.

He seemed to be sizing her up as well, brown eyes roving across the top of her head and then down to her legs as though he was looking for something. Whether he found it or not she didn't know, but his scowl told her he didn't like the result. "Let's get this over with." At that, he spun on his heel and began walking away, not bothering to check if she would follow.

"You really know how to make a girl feel good about herself…" She muttered, trailing behind. His pace was sedate, forcing her to fight her way through the thick undergrowth this time, and her frustration rose. She'd been afraid for her sister, but now _she_ was the one stuck with some tall creepy guy. Even with this, though, she couldn't help but worry for her sister. Militia was probably lost, scared, and lonely…

* * *

Militiades Malachite was on-course, unafraid, and was perfectly content with her company. The moment she'd landed, using her claws to spiral down a tree trunk, a short girl had casually floated on by with a parasol, landing on the ground with a lackadaisical spring in her step. Sure, her silence had been off-putting at first, but a few quick hand gestures had helped the red-hued girl realize her new partner was mute, even if she didn't actually understand the sign-language. It didn't take long to find the main path the Headmaster had alluded to, and while there were plenty of Grimm, the two dispatched them easily enough. Indeed, their silence was a companionable one, the two of them simply enjoying the forest's natural beauty in between adrenaline-pumping but all-too-brief fights.

Her partner had an interesting appearance to her, with her long hair separated into two distinct colors; the left half pink and the right half brown. Her eyes were heterochromatic, but inverted, the left one being brown while the right was pink. She wore knee-high white boots over brown pants, and a strange white-and-pink jacket with the lower half of the front cut off to reveal a brown corset beneath, so the back served as something of a cape. Over one shoulder rested her weapon, a dainty-looking parasol that Militia had seen blocking crushing blows from the Grimm, and which could become a lance to spear them through.

The comfortable mood was spoiled for Militia by one thing, though - her sister. She knew Melanie could take care of herself even on this uneven ground, but she had no doubt her elder twin (by a mere two minutes) would be running herself ragged to find and partner with her sister. Part of her felt guilty over it, but on some level she was glad she wouldn't be stuck with her sister for the next four years. She loved her sister, she really did, but having a life outside of that, a sense of individualism… it had been something she dreamed of for quite some time now, and Melanie's overprotective tendencies only exacerbated the issue. That was part of why she had cut her hair short. That was part of why when she locked eyes with someone completely unfamiliar, she let out a sigh of relief.

Though it looked like she'd need to learn some sign language.

Her pondering came to a close as the duo arrived at the top of a ledge overlooking what could only be the forest temple. The ruins of a rotunda, it consisted of a large round stone slab carved with an intricate radially symmetrical design, surrounded by a brick wall - though most of it had tumbled away to provide easy access. Inside of that was a handful of tall pillars holding up the remains of a stone circle, and inside of that a much larger number of shorter columns.

"Think this is it?" Militia asked. It seemed too easy, really. Her mute companion simply glanced at her with a grin, the message clear. _Obviously, _she seemed to say.

* * *

"Think this is it?" Melanie asked. The cave entrance before them was thoroughly uninviting, but the narrow path they'd stumbled upon led here.

"Obviously not." The tall boy said, speaking for the first time since they'd met up. "Look at the indents there and there," he waved an arm at the forest floor; Melanie couldn't tell the difference, "and the marks on that rock." This she could see, one of the large stones positioned by the cave mouth covered in a crude illustration of many small figures fighting against some sort of giant scorpion with spears and bows. "It's a deathstalker, and from the looks of the carvings, an _old_ one. I'm sure you at least understand that Grimm get smarter and stronger the longer they live. There's the possibility it's been slain by now and the cave is empty, but that's not a chance I'm willing to take. Only a complete _idiot_ would go in there."

Melanie had to shake off a sudden feeling that the universe was laughing at some strange inside-joke. "Okay, so this isn't it. Should we, like, try the other way, then?"

The boy just rolled his eyes. "Are you going to keep asking stupid questions? Of course we will. Try to keep up." Once again, he was already leaving, not bothering to check whether the tireuse was following.

Stamping her foot in frustration and accidentally stabbing her heel deep into the ground, she let out an enraged shriek. "I _HATE _you!" After pulling herself free again, she set off after him. She was still so busy fuming over this injustice that she missed the sound of shifting stones echoing from deep within the cave...

* * *

Roman wore his customary smug grin, but internally he was fuming over this injustice. His first few moments after landing among the trees had been miserable, and it had all been topped off with the girl he vaguely recalled fruitlessly trying to rob a couple of months ago stumbling into into him, yelling at him and nearly revealing his secret to the observing Beacon staff, while locking him out of a partnership with Neo. Now after cooling down and introducing herself as Cinder Fall, she was walking in front of him, acting calm yet still passive-aggressively insinuating that _he_ was the one who had wronged _her_ by being present. After a while, he'd entirely tuned her out, having no patience for the gratingly conversational tone she used to insult him. Not long after that, she had fallen silent, but the tension between them was still palpable.

Fortunately, respite was provided as an enormous black form burst through the trees. Roman wasn't familiar with the types of Grimm, but the bulky shape and clumsy swipes of this one made him think of some kind of bear. It roared loudly, its bluster backed up by the strength of its blows as it rushed them.

Roman dodged to the right, Cinder to the left, and he brought up his cane to fire several screaming flares against its side. The fireworks were flashy, but still powerful enough to shatter concrete… yet this thing seemed barely phased. Cinder grabbed one of the capsules from her bandolier, uncapping it and tossing a red powder over their attacker's snarling face. Then, to his shock, she flicked her fingers to summon a ball of flame over one hand, and hurled it at the beast. The Dust, as it was wont to do, ignited spectacularly, creating a massive explosion that threw all three backward away from the blast.

Roman found himself lying flat on his back, looking at the blue sky visible through small gaps between the green tree canopies. Perhaps he should just stay here. This stupid mission had turned out to be _far_ more effort than it was worth, and it was starting to feel like the universe was out to make him suffer. Was Oum up there somewhere, having awakened from his slumber just to laugh at the criminal?

Such existential ponderings would have to be left unanswered, however, as the broad white bone-mask of the bear Grimm came into view on his left, snarling at him. Roman rolled over and leapt to his feet, Melodic Cudgel at the ready - only for a burst of fire to nearly take off his head as it spun toward the monster.

Now that he could see that the explosion _had_ done some damage, after all; it was missing an arm, leaving it lopsided, and the bone mask was covered in hairline cracks and stained with soot. Cinder launched herself past Roman, a cold rage in her eyes as she threw a flurry of fireballs at the beast, but it hardly flinched, the dark fur seeming to absorb the flames. Roman knew what he had to do, firing off a single flare at the beast's head.

This time it did the trick, shattering the already-weakened bone-mask. Shards flew everywhere, but one particularly large chunk went straight downward, tearing through the bear's head. After a moment, it slumped, red eyes going dark as it collapsed to the forest floor and began disintegrating into smoke.

"That could have gone better." Was all the criminal offered, slumping downward as he panted. He was no fighter, and the sudden onset of exhaustion left him unable to provide his usual wit.

"I'll need to use less Dust next time…" Cinder muttered to herself, already setting off again. "If I could find some way to regulate how much I expend…" Without looking at him, she grabbed Roman by the collar, all but dragging him behind as she headed on northward. Shortly after, they emerged into a wide clearing, to behold a scene of pure madness.

* * *

Not long after meeting with his… prickly partner, Mercury had finally found his way to the main pathway that led to the supposed temple. Now the pair walked along, easily beating back the occasional Beowulf or Boarbatusk that tried to challenge them. Feeling no hurry, he'd decided to start a conversation.

"So… I don't believe I caught your name." He said, putting his arms behind his head to stretch a bit.

"Emerald. Pleased to meet you." was the dark girl's succinct response, sounding anything but.

"Wait… your name is Emerald…" Mercury began. She glared at him, promising pain if he continued, but he kept on. "And we're in…"

"Don't you dare."

"Emerald's forest!" Mercury flashed a grin in her direction, and she looked to be visibly restraining herself from throttling him. She didn't respond, turning back forward in silent anger.

That hadn't been the desired effect.

But after a while, she spoke up. "And you? What's your name?"

Mercury let his arms down, turning to her in genuine surprise. "You mean, you don't recognize me?"

Emerald just crossed her arms. "Was I supposed to?" She resentfully glared forward, refusing to even look at him.

"Well, I'm just surprised. People usually know my name before I get to learn theirs. It's honestly kind of refreshing to meet someone who hasn't at least heard of me in passing." If Mercury was honest with himself, he didn't wholly mind the fame and recognition that came with his achievements. The press's apparent inability to understand the concept of privacy was annoying and the occasional fangirl (or boy) a menace, but the perks that came with it made up for that, for the most part. So long as he didn't dwell on the contrast between all of that and what had come before…

He shook his head to dispel those thoughts, turning back to Emerald. "What humility you have there," she was saying in a deadpan tone. "I tremble in my boots, knowing that I walk beside such a god among men and faunus." Mercury wasn't sure whether to give a bitter chuckle or take the joke in stride, his ego conflicting with other thoughts. Before he could decide on a response, however, everything went batshit insane.

It began with a blur of white streaking between them, followed by a stream of expletives. Turning around, the duo saw an edgy-looking faunus rush out of the treeline into the path. Not a second later, the trees he'd emerged between toppled over to reveal a massive black-and-white scorpion with a golden stinger - a Deathstalker, if memory served. The thing paused long enough to let out a bone-chilling shriek before surging forward again, snapping its pincers at the boy. Emerald reacted instantly, swinging one of her chains out to wrap around the Faunus, yanking him toward them just a moment before the stinger plunged downward into the spot he'd been running. Whipping the boy past them before letting go, it was Emerald and Mercury's turn to run as the giant Grimm rushed to catch up.

For his part, the boy stumbled to his feet and stopped himself with his blood-red blade right before he would have collided with a stone pillar. Indeed, up ahead was a wide open area with a small half-broken roundel at the opposite end, clearly the forest temple. A white-dressed girl, the one who had passed them a few seconds ago, stood in the middle, gaping back at the monstrous Grimm like a deer caught in the headlights.

Mercury turned back for just a second, aiming the sole of his boot at the oncoming arachnid and firing. The blast caught it in one eye, causing it to recoil, buying the pair enough time to cross the meadow and into the temple. As they did so, the faunus boy passed them, rushing headlong back toward the deathstalker with his weapon _sheathed_. Was he insane?

If that wasn't enough, Mercury turned around to see two other students; some guy in a bowler cap and the girl who he'd met in the auditorium yesterday, firing at the Grimm from the tree-line. The boy's cane was shooting off a stream of screaming fireworks that impacted against the monster's many many legs, slowing it down. The girl was like a living flamethrower, letting out a massive burst of flame from her palm, throwing in Dust powder to increase the potency of the attack. Still, they didn't seem to be doing too much to it…

The faunus reached the Deathstalker and was instantly swatted aside, but he easily used the momentum to roll backward and land on his feet. His sheath was held out, sword only half drawn; it was glowing red, as were the highlights in his hair. He snapped his sword down into the sheath, and the glow ceased. He instantly rushed back toward the arachnid, only to get knocked to the other side again.

Emerald decided to take action now, running back toward the monster and letting out her chains, swinging around herself to build up momentum before launching them at the tail. "Have we all turned into a bunch of idiots?" Mercury rhetorically asked the girl still in the temple, before taking off as well.

What happened next was the most perfect example of accidental teamwork seen in that forest yet, everyone doing their own thing in just the right combination, with just the right timing, for everything to go perfectly. Emerald cut off the amber stinger, which crashed down on the spot where the base of the tail met the body. Mercury was passed by the unfamiliar girl, who used her bladed heels to force one flailing pincer aside, while Mercury used the other as a springboard to pass over the Deathstalker's head and land right atop the golden stinger. A sharp downward kick boosted by a pair of shotgun blasts sent him rocketing upward while the stinger stabbed through its bony protection and into the ground, pinning it in place.

Then the Faunus rushed into the opening created between the sets of pincers, and gave a single diagonal slash across its face. That was all that was needed. Time seemed to slow down, the light from the sun dimming as reality was colored in black and red. The Deathstalker split in half down its length, then began to dissolve, the motion passing outward from the cut. Instead of the customary smoke of most Grimm, though, it was turning into rose petals…

Then reality returned to normal, time resuming as normal, as the boy slammed his sword back into its sheath. All traces of the Deathstalker were completely gone, rose petals and all, and Mercury was suddenly falling onto nothing but open grass. Fortunately, it just took another blast from his boots to slow his fall, and he landed gently right next to the shallow hole made by the scorpion's stinger.

The two who had been in the treeline came forward, joining the group in the middle of the clearing. Everyone was looking at the faunus with a mixture of awe and perhaps a touch of fear, but he merely stood silent.

"Well, that was… a thing." Mercury said, recognizing the awkwardness that came from suddenly being recognized after an unexpected feat. After all, that was how he'd felt after his first time winning the tournament. Well, awkwardness and a few… other emotions, but those were less applicable here. "Listen, we've found the temple. Why don't we grab our relics and go, before anything else like that shows up."

The black-haired girl fiery girl nodded at this. "Let's not waste any more time out here than we need to." With that, the six began walking back toward the stone roundel.

Atop the shorter set of columns arrayed around the edge, they found a variety of chess pieces. Some were black, some were gold, but the black ones were nearer to them. Mercury and Emerald got there first. "What do you say to a pony?" He asked, holding up a black knight. Emerald simply shrugged, but her eye-rolling seemed somehow less hostile than before.

The other kickboxer of the group picked up a black rook. "This okay?" She asked the faunus, tone subdued. He simply grunted, and she took that as a yes.

The pyromancer and the bowler-hat boy arrived last, having held back to exchange words. She looked unhappy about something, not even stopping to look as she snatched the other black knight off the next pillar over before turning to leave.

"I can tell this has been a _real_ bonding experience," Mercury commented. Glancing upward, he was surprised to find the sun still high in the sky; it somehow felt like a week or two had passed since his arrival at Beacon yesterday.

Then his eyes went wide as the sun was blocked out by a large shadow. He pushed Emerald away, just in time for both of them to avoid being impaled by the sudden rain of enormous feathers over the clearing...

* * *

**Tireuse: female practitioner of Savate, a french martial art that combines elements of western boxing with graceful kicking techniques.**

**I hate research. I **_**hate**_** research. The fact that I looked up a bunch of stuff about kickboxing to find something like this should tell you how much I like the Malachites and wish they would return in the actual show and oh god I'm making myself sad again.**

**The brief fight scene with Emerald and the beowulf was completely unplanned. It just occurred to me when writing Emerald's fall that nobody had encountered any Grimm yet, and it would be a bit before they would, either, with the way I initially had things planned. Thus, I decided to fix that, and simultaneously show of Emerald's abilities in such a way as to hopefully thoroughly disprove the misconceptions from her introductory scene. That also indirectly caused me to write more Grimm encounters into the following scenes. **

**The Deathstalker fight wasn't originally part of the plan, with Adam and Melanie stopping by the cave just long enough to obliviously mock canon!Jaune and moving on, but I realized I actually needed them to fight it to set up for what I have planned next chapter.**

**It's also worth noting that I originally planned for there to be playing cards or domino tiles instead of chess pieces, but I quickly realized there was no way to match them to each other like the chess pieces, and there was no in-universe justification for the change. As lazy and unoriginal as it felt to me, I stuck with the chess pieces.**

**On a different note, I wanted to recommend a pair of really good fanfics. **Weiss vs Atlas **is the single best post-vol-3 fic I've read; unlike many of the reaction fics that go too saccharine or too dark, it takes the new developments from this volume and spins its own story off of them, chronicling Weiss's experiences returning to the politics of Atlas. Plus, Neon, Flynt, and Ciel play a huge role, so that's fun. The other one is **Arc of the Revolution,** an AU where Jaune's transcripts into Beacon are discovered, and through a very long and strange series of events, he ends up creating his own faction to bring a necessary change to Remnant. It is at once absolutely hilarious and still capable of being deadly serious when needed, and takes an in-depth look at a lot of the things about the setting we take for granted, and the realistic consequences of such, even as Jaune blunders his way to the top.**

**It also brought up an interesting point that jives pretty well with my planned backstory for the Twins, which is at once fairly straightforward and also kind of not. I'll get into that more when it comes up in the story, though.**

**Oh yeah - along with the initiation arc, which is drawing near its close, I have now better planned out what I want to do with the chapters following that. The Badge And The Burden, the Jaundice arc, and The Stray are all very character-driven installments, and without those characters in those positions, I'm left both with an absence of guidelines that might help my planning, and the presence of lots of opportunity to work with **_**these**_** characters relatively unrestricted. I plan to take advantage of that, and I hope you'll let me know how that turns out, for better or for worse.**


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